Organisational Wisdom

More than 50% of business decisions end in tears , some more spectacularly than others! In today's VUCA world (volatile uncertain,  complex, and ambiguous) business leaders are under pressure to act quickly and make the "right" call. So how do they get it so wrong so often, and how can you beat the odds? In the early 1970s, Ford Motor Company's charismatic CEO, Lee Iococca wanted a "2,000 pound car for $2,000". The result was the Ford Pinto, a popular compact car designed to beat the Japanese automakers at their own game. But there was a problem. The position of the gas tank meant a rear-end collision could easily rupture the tank and cause a fire. Engineers came up with a fix but it was going to cost about $11 per vehicle, which would amount to $137 million over projected sales of 12.5 million vehicles. Instead, Ford conducted a cost-benefit analysis on the litig ation costs due to likely deaths and severe burns of drivers and passengers and arrived a...

Herding cats is easy compared to keeping a bunch of smart millennials motivated for long enough to make a meaningful contribution. Yet, fast-growing, agile, entrepreneurial organisations need this kind of sustainable energy to do good things for clients and communities. What's the secret?  It turns out this is exactly the same problem faced by professional service firms - the McKinseys, Deloittes, and BCGs of the business world. They have to entice a group of disparate professionals to give up autonomy in return for a group share of the profits, while at the same time maintaining the bonds of a matrix-structured organization which threatens to fly apart at any moment under the centrifugal force of massive ego! Have they cracked the code?  Laura Empson, Professor in Management at the Cass Business School, London, and Ann Langley, Professor of Management at HEC Montreal think they have. Their model of the professional service firm (2015) is an elegant guide in how t...